


Our Once Quiet, Out-Of-The-Way City

by BorderJ95



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: A Hole, Ancient Greece, Danger, Duncan's a Doctor, Gods, Greek - Freeform, Greek!Ross, Greek!Simon, Greek!Sjin, Greek!Strife, Greek!Will, He's also an Orphan, I Suppose They're All Orphans Now, It's a Big Hole, Juniper Berries, M/M, Oooh La La, Roman!Duncan, Roman!Lewis, Roman!Parv, Roman!Smith, Roman!Trott, Sjin's his Patient, Violence, Well - Freeform, Will's a Priestess' Apprentice, city, eh?, farming, foraging, how sad, roman - Freeform, slight gore, why, why not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-13 00:54:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5688328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BorderJ95/pseuds/BorderJ95
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of course he could plough a field and harvest like the best of them, but he knew not how to fight. He would just get in the way.<br/>He’d decided to leave it to the professionals and they’d certainly win then, he was sure. The gods clearly favoured them.</p>
<p>They did not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Our Once Quiet, Out-Of-The-Way City

The sun shined bright on that day – it always shined bright in his city, for his city was surely favoured by the gods. They were the most loyal; they prayed every day, made animal sacrifices every morning and made toasts to the gods every night when they dined. They were undoubtedly the ideal city for the gods – but if that was true then why weren’t they warned about the attack?

Ross had been out in the fields, harvesting their latest crops when he’d heard the first scream. He had dropped his basket and ran to the sound. Before he had even turned the corner his ears were shocked by the noise of hundreds of shouts and cries. He had stopped dead in his tracks and ran in the other direction.

Despite what the rest of the town had thought, he was not stupid, he understood what was happening and knew that he would be of no help seeing as he had absolutely no military training or any skill in combat for that matter. Of course he could plough a field and harvest like the best of them, but he knew not how to fight. He would just get in the way.

He’d decided to leave it to the professionals and they’d certainly win then, he was sure. The gods clearly favoured them.

They did not.

He had hid in the forest just east of the village. He’d passed many in the streets, the old hobbling as fast as they could away from the danger, the young gearing up with wooden spears hastily crafted, the very young clinging to their sobbing mothers in fright. Ross stopped for them but the mothers had yelled and screamed for him to leave them be – he had tried to reason with them, to convince them to come with him, that he knew a safe place they could hide but they refused his help and had scampered off in the opposite direction. He had no choice but to leave.

It was hours later that the screaming and overall noise had died down. He was not sure whether he should go back to the village and see the carnage or if he should just flee further into the woods like a coward. He’d thought about it for only a moment before he’d decided to make his way back to the village.

He wished he had fled. He didn’t want to see this. Didn’t want to see the countless bodies of people he’d known strewn about the floor. He recognised the local baker and his wife lying next to each other, hands clasped in an eternal embrace. Further on, he was saddened upon seeing their 11 year old son with his own wooden spear sticking out of his chest. There were many more like this – he didn’t keep count.

As he’d got closer to the town’s centre he heard voices. Ross peaked around the street corner and saw three Roman soldiers.

One of them nudged the body of the town’s blacksmith and frowned. “Why couldn’t he have just surrendered and given them the swords? He could’ve smithed for us!” said one with black hair. A tall brunette stood next to him. “I dunno. Why didn’t the entire town just surrender? They could’ve been hostages,” he replied. A shorter brunette snorted. “What, all of them? Nah, only the useful ones would have been kept alive, maybe some of the young boys too if they hadn’t tried to stick spears in us.” The soldiers nodded sadly in agreement.  

The tall brunette sighed and left the one with black hair’s side. He stopped in front of a sword on the ground and stooped to pick it up. As he raised from the ground his eyes caught sight of Ross watching from the corner.

Ross expected him to shout and draw attention to him – but he did not. Instead he indicated with his head for him to leave, run away and to not look back. At least, that’s what Ross assumed and ran away from the soldiers.  He passed his house but decided against going in, not wanting to see the devastation that was clearly inside and ran back into the woods.

\--

It had been two days since his once quiet and out of the way city had been attacked. During those two days he had lived in the woods, foraging for berries when he was hungry and sleeping in cold, damp caves when he needed to rest. It wasn’t ideal, but it was surviving.

It was when he was foraging that he came across the others. Other survivors.

He had spotted a juniper berry bush a few paces in front of him and instantly made his way towards it. So far he’d only been eating those small red berried that grew on trees and they did nothing to disperse his hunger. Surely these berries had been a gift from the gods; perhaps they still favoured those from his loyal city.

As he’d made to grab a stem of junipers, they were extracted from the bush from the other side. He’d made his way round to the other side and come face to face – well, not really – to a short man with orange hair clutching the berries. They had stared at each other for a few moments before recognition flashed in the man’s eyes.

“Ross! You’re alive!” the man exclaimed. Ross suddenly recognised the ginger man’s voice. “Simon? How- how did you get out? I- I thought everyone was-“ Simon interrupted him. “Me and a couple of others managed to flee to the woods not long after the fighting began – we tried to get others to come with us but…” Ross nodded in understanding, the same thing had happened to him with the mother and children. Perhaps they had gotten out by themselves?

Simon tugged on his tunic. “Come on, come back to camp with me. The others will be glad to see another survivor.” Ross ended up following behind Simon as he led the way back. As they neared, Ross heard people talking.

“… been gone too long. What if he was caught?! We need to go after him and see-“

“It’s alright, Sjin. I’m sure he’ll be back soon. We’ll give him a few more minutes and if there’s still no sign of him we’ll go look for him. OK?”

“Ok.”

Ross instantly recognised those voices as well. He and Simon entered the small clearing and saw Paul Sykes, also known as Sjin to his friends, the farmers son and William Strife, the priestess’s ‘apprentice’ (the priestess’s weren’t supposed to have male apprentice’s but she had found Will as a child, alone and scared, and had taken him in and taught him the ways of the gods), sitting cross legged next to a small fire. They must have heard the bush leaves rustle because they’d both looked up at their arrival.

“Simon! Thank the gods you’re back! We were worried- Ross? Ross!” Sjin exclaimed, jumped up and pulled Ross into a hug. Ross awkwardly patted his back until the man let go. He was always the touchy-feely type. Will hadn’t bothered getting up and just waved at him from the ground. “How’d you get out?” he asked Ross.

“I-I hid,” Ross confessed ashamedly.

Seeing’s Ross’s shame, Will finally stood up and put his hands on his shoulders. “There was nothing else you could have done. I have been taught to not speak ill of the gods but they were cruel on that day. They sought blood and they got it. There was literally nothing you could have done to prevent the fall of our city, not even our fighters were victorious. Do not blame yourself for any of this,” Will had looked him straight in the eye as he’d said all of that. It made Ross feel slightly better.

“Anyway!” Simon cut in, wanting to change the subject to that of a lighter one. “I got the berries you wanted.” He held the junipers up to Will’s face. He smiled. “Perfect. Now, how about that rabbit? Ross? Hungry?” Ross nodded and Simon pulled him towards the fire where Ross hadn’t noticed a rabbit was cooking. Simon sat on the dirt floor and Ross followed suit. Sjin and Will sat themselves on the opposite side.

They stayed in that clearing for another day before deciding it would probably be best if they moved on, just in case the Roman legion came through that way and discovered them.

It was just their luck that they were the ones to stumble into a Roman soldier.

It was midday and they were in high spirits. They had found a wildly populated blackberry bush near dawn and had feasted on them. Stomachs full (to an extent) they continued on, still unsure of where they were actually heading.

They were joking and pushing each other in jest so they hadn’t seen the large hole up ahead. Sjin and Simon were in front of Ross and Will so they didn’t think they’d need to pay attention. Simon had noticed it first and had tried to warn Sjin but it was too late. Sjin fell into the hole and everyone scrambled to the edge. The hole was a deep one, that much was obvious. But, whether it be by luck or a gift from the gods themselves, Sjin had managed to grab a hold of a large, protruding root.

“Help!” he screamed up, terrified. Will attempted to reach down but found that he was a few inches too short. Ross nudged him aside and reached down into the hole. He beckoned for Sjin to take hold of his hand but the man was too afraid to let go of the root. Simon began talking to him calmly and telling him that everything was going to be alright, he was going to live. Sjin eventually convinced himself to release the root with one hand and grab Ross’ waiting one.

With the combined help on Will and Simon, Ross pulled Sjin up and out of the hole. Sjin scrambled away from the pit and lay down on the ground, breathing heavily. Simon, Ross and Will all went over to him in an attempt to comfort the man.

After a short while Sjin sat up and declared that they should keep going – it would be night fall soon. He stood with the help of the others and soon realised that he would need help walking, he had badly cut his legs and knees on the way down. He didn’t like asking for help, but Ross threw his arm over his own shoulder and assisted anyway. They had only been walking for maybe ten minutes at most when they were spotted the soldier. Unfortunately for them he had spotted them too.

The soldier stared at them and cleared his throat. “Uh… hello?” he said unsurely.

Ross suddenly recognised him. He was the short brunette Roman soldier from the city. None of them said a word. The soldier glanced around briefly. “Can I, uh…” he looked to Ross who was still supporting Sjin. “Is he alright?” the soldier asked.

Will stepped in front of Sjin slightly. “He’s fine. We would just like to pass by in piece, soldier,” he told the man. The soldier looked a little shocked at his tone. He pointed behind himself. “We have a medical tent and a doctor who could see to his wounds if you’d like-“

Will interrupted him. “No thank you. We would just like to be on our way.” Simon tugged on Will’s tunic, much like he had done to Ross’ days before. “Will, maybe they could fix Sjin up, then we leave and it’ll make the trip faster and less straining on Ross-“ Ross interrupted him. “I’m fine,” he insisted, adjusting Sjin slightly.

“Look, Ross, I’m not saying you’re weak or tired. What I _am_ saying is that you will be eventually and Sjin does need medical attention!” Simon explained. Ross couldn’t disagree. Will stared at Simon with wide eyes. “Simon, he’s a _Roman_ , from a _Roman_ camp. And you want us to let a _Roman_ doctor look over our friend?”

Simon opened his mouth to reply but Sjin beat him to it. “Look, guys. My legs need stitching up and the rest of me is aching in all of the wrong places. We have no idea where we’re going or how long it would take to get anywhere. We could die out here and if there’s a chance of survival, even if it means letting a Roman doctor have at me, then I don’t care about your stupid _pride_.”

“It’s not _pride_ ,” Will spluttered. “I’m looking out for us! Are you seriously going to trust a Roman after what happened?” He looked around at the small group in desperation, however, upon seeing their set faces he sighed in defeat. “For the love of – FINE,” he turned back to the soldier who pretended that he hadn’t been listening. “Where’s you camp?” he asked in a monotone voice. The soldier indicated behind himself. “This way, follow me.”

They entered the, surprisingly small, camp with caution. The small brunette suddenly turned to them. “I’m Trott, by the way. I never said before because you were too busy discussing how much Romans were to be untrusted,” he said with a grin. Will rolled his eyes.

Simon smiled at him. “I’m Simon. The moody blond one is Will, the one with the buggered legs is Sjin and the one carrying him is Ross,” Simon introduced them. “Nice to meet you all,” Trott nodded and continued leading them to the only fairly clean tent in the camp. As they got nearer a blond man emerged from said tent.

“Oh, Duncan!” Trott called. The blond man – Duncan – turned to look at him. “Yeah?” he asked. He looked curiously at the group behind. “Who’re they?”

Trott smiled. “Well, the one using the tallest as a leaning post is your new patient,” he informed him. Duncan turned his gaze to Sjin. He gave him a once over and grinned ever-so faintly. “Alright,” he walked over to where Ross was supporting Sjin who was blushing slight under the doctor’s gaze. “So what seems to be the problem…?”

“Sjin,” Ross supplied, tightening his hold on the man’s side, not sure about how Duncan was looking at Sjin. “He fell down a hole and cut up his hands and legs when he grabbed onto a root to stop himself from falling the whole way.”

Duncan raised his eyebrows slightly. “Nice thinking. Not sure many here would have thought to do that – they would have just fallen to their deaths knowing them,” he joked, still not taking his eyes off of Sjin (who was now practically the same colour as the tomatoes Ross used to farm). Trott cleared his throat and Duncan glanced over at him. “Oh, right, yes. Could you bring him into my tent so I can, uh, _look him over_ ,” he asked Ross without actually looking at him.

Ross looked over at Will and Simon. Will was glaring at the doctor while Simon was smirking at him. Those two really were different.

Ross helped Sjin into the tent but refused to leave when Duncan asked him to. “Just because we brought him here, doesn’t mean we trust a Roman alone with him,” Ross told him. Duncan just sighed in slight annoyance but allowed him to stay.

\--

Outside of the tent Simon, Will and Trott were standing awkwardly.

“So…” Trott started.

“Hey, Trottimus!” a voice called. All three turned and saw a man with black hair approaching. He gave each Simon and Will a once over before arching an eyebrow at Trott. “Who are they?” he asked him.

Trott pointed at Simon and Will in turn. “That’s Simon and Will; their other two friends are in the medical tent with Duncan. Apparently one of them fell in a hole and hurt himself.”

Will glared. “It wasn’t just ‘a hole,’ he could’ve died,” he spat out. The black haired man gave him a closer look at smirked. “Oh? Was it a big hole? Did he get a boo-boo? Does he need mummy to kiss it better?”

Will practically growled at him, “Excuse me?”

Simon put a hand on his arm and Will attempted to calm himself. The black haired soldier’s smirk widened. “Or perhaps you want something kissing better? I would be happy to help,” he purred. Will frowned. “What? No! Why would you even-“ The soldier interrupted him. “Are you sure because,” he stepped into Will’s personal space and lightly trailed his fingers up his arm. “I would be a very willing participant. I think you’d find me a _pleasure_.”

Will stared at the Roman in complete shock. He opened his mouth to say gods know what when he was thankfully interrupted by a new voice. “Parv, leave him alone.”

The black haired soldier now known as Parv turned to the man who had spoken but did not remove his hand from Will’s arm. The man who had spoken was tall and brunette, he had an air of authority to him yet it was clear that the two soldiers did not fear him, nor have any need to.

“But Lewis… look at him! Please can I keep him? I promise I’ll feed him and-“ he winked at Will as he said the next part. “I’ll give him baths and I’ll even let him sleep in my bed.” The tall man, Lewis, exhaled in exasperation. “Parv,” he said warningly. Parv grudgingly removed his hand from Will and dropped it to his side.

“You’re no fun,” Parv pouted. Lewis shook his head and turned to Will and Simon (his eyes may have lingered on Simon for a tad bit longer than was strictly necessary). “My name is Lewis Brindley, former Roman captain,” he introduced himself. Will furrowed his brows slightly. “Former?” he asked. Lewis nodded.

“We found that we… _disagreed_ with the way the soldiers were behaving and deserted,” he told them.

Will looked at the three of them in shock. “You _deserted_? How? I mean, that must have been incredibly difficult! Getting away, having the right supplies-“

Parv grinned flirtatiously at him. “Oh, we’re full of tricks. Maybe you’d like to see a couple of mine some time.” Trott hit him upside the head, Parv faintly glared at him in response. Will decided he was just going to ignore the black haired man from now on.

Simon suddenly spoke up. “Um, not to be rude but do you know how long it’ll take for your doctor to stitch up Sjin? It’s just that we don’t want to be trekking the woods in the dark, you know?” he asked Trott. Lewis frowned at that. “What? No, no, no. You’ll stay here for the night. I mean, it’s practically here already! There would be absolutely no point in leaving until the morning,” he said.

“Plus, your friend will need to rest before walking again,” Parv cut in. Will was surprised that he found Parv actually made some sense. He nodded. “As much as I hate to admit it Simon, I think they’re right. Sjin is in no fit state to be wandering about the woods.”

Simon nodded. “Alright,” he turned to look up at Lewis. “Is there anywhere we can sleep? Just point to a spot on the floor that won’t be in the way.”

Lewis laughed slightly. “Out here? No, you’ll each bunk with one of us in our tents – they’re all two men,” he added.

“Oh.”

Parv gabbed Will’s hand. “I dibs blondey!” He then dragged Will over to what was presumably his tent. Lewis turned to Simon. “Want to share with me? I promise I don’t snore,” he jested. Simon grinned at him. “Alright! Where is it?” Lewis then led Simon to his own tent.

At that moment Ross and Duncan emerged from the medical tent. “He’s gonna need to sleep in there with me, there’s no way he’s getting up yet – I’m not having him tearing his stitches,” Duncan told Trott. He nodded. “Ok, so where’s Ross gonna sleep? I would offer but I’ve been having really restless nights and I’ll probably end up punching you in nose in my sleep,” Trott told Ross.

“Oh, it’s ok. I can just sleep out here – I used to do it back when I worked in the fields,” Ross informed them. Duncan went back into the tent, muttering about how he needed to keep an eye on his patient. Trott shook his head at Ross. “Oh no, you’re not sleeping out here, its freezing! We can just ask-“ his eyes light up when a man with auburn hair approached them. “Ask Smith! Hey Smith! Feel like having a tent-mate? Ross here needs somewhere to sleep and you’re our last resort.”

Smith laughed at that. “Oh, last choice am I Trotty? I’m hurt, truly I am.” He clutched his chest in mock agony. Trott laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Just take him to your tent.” With that said, Trott walked away from the two.

Smith smiled at him cheekily. “I’m Smith, your new roomie apparently.” He held out his hand and Ross cautiously shook it. “Ross,” he replied uncertainly. Smith either didn’t notice or he just didn’t care and indicated with his head where his tent was.

“Follow me,” he told him and walked to where they were going to be sleeping.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this! There will probably be another chapter - but I can't really say when it'll be out because I tend to just write on a whim and only when I have a solid idea :)


End file.
